Police clean out debris from a meth lab that was discovered in the basement of 5137 Abbott Av. S., Minneapolis, on Friday, April 11, 2014.

Tom Sweeney, Star Tribune

Meth house in Minneapolis' Fulton neighborhood to be condemned

Article by: Matt McKinney

Star Tribune

May 15, 2014 - 9:24 PM

A meth house in Minneapolis’ Fulton neighborhood raided by police last month and feared by neighbors was scheduled for condemnation Thursday by the city’s problem properties unit.

The condemnation — which was to take effect at midnight Thursday — means no one can live in the house at 5137 Abbott Av. S. until all health and safety problems at the property are fixed.

That seems unlikely to happen, according to an e-mail sent to neighbors this week. Owner Sara Shenton told a police investigator that she cannot afford to make the repairs and will instead sell the house and move on, according to an e-mail that crime prevention specialist Jennifer Waisanen sent to a neighbor of the property.

Shenton “would be willing to take any contact information from the neighbors for a real estate company to purchase the home,” Waisanen wrote.

Shenton was not home during the raid. She must meet with police on May 26 to tell what she knows about the meth lab at her house, according to Waisanen’s e-mail.

At the time of the raid, the house smelled like chemicals and the first officers to arrive said their eyes began to itch and burn. Several people inside the house were taken away for questioning, including a 37-year-old Coon Rapids man who was wanted on a drug warrant.

The meth discovery was out of place for the neighborhood, which has a median income of about twice that of the city as a whole, but several neighbors said they had suspected something illegal was brewing at the house. Late-night visitors and a trash-filled back yard alarmed people living nearby, said one woman, who asked not to be named out of fear of Shenton.

Shenton has a felony drug possession charge from 2012 in Ramsey County, according to public records. A call placed Thursday to a phone number listed under her name rang once and then was immediately disconnected.